The chivalry of Stratford was staggered at the
first onset, and sounded a retreat while they had yet legs to carry
them off the field. They had scarcely marched a mile when, their
legs failing them, they were forced to lie down under a crab-tree,
where they passed the night. It is still standing, and goes by the
name of Shakspeare's tree.
In the morning his companions awaked the bard, and proposed
returning to Bedford, but he declined, saying he had had enough having
drank with
Piping Pebworth, Dancing Marston,
Haunted Hilbro', Hungry Grafton,
Drudging Exhall, Papist Wicksford,
Beggarly Broom, and Drunken Bedford.
"The villages here alluded to," says Ireland, "still bear the
epithets thus given them: the people of Pebworth are still famed for
their skill on the pipe and tabor; Hilborough is now called Haunted
Hilborough; and Grafton is famous for the poverty of its soil."
The old mansion of Charlecot and its surrounding park still remain
in the possession of the Lucy family, and are peculiarly
interesting, from being connected with this whimsical but eventful
circumstance in the scanty history of the bard. As the house stood but
little more than three miles' distance from Stratford, I resolved to
pay it a pedestrian visit, that I might stroll leisurely through
some of those scenes from which Shakspeare must have derived his
earliest ideas of rural imagery.
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